Julian Moxon/PARIS
STRIKES BY AIR-TRAFFIC controllers and the shortage of airport and airspace capacity are being blamed for a serious increase in departure delays in Europe during the July-September period.
The Association of European Airlines (AEA) describes as "appalling" the figures for the three months, in which it claims that 20.4% of European flights were delayed by more than 15min. It was the worst quarterly figure since April-June 1992, it adds.
Eurocontrol says that the delays would have been worse if it had not had recourse to its new central flow-management unit (CFMU), which smooths and regulates the flow of en route traffic flying over Europe. It cites the one-day air-traffic controllers' strike in France (part of the country's general strike in early October), in which the CFMU helped minimise the impact by re-routing aircraft around the country.
Italy and Greece were also badly affected by controller strikes. Greek controllers again failed to reach agreement with their Government on pay and conditions, while Italy's are in dispute over privatisation.
The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers (IFATCA) attacked the AEA for being "sensationalist". It questions the organisation's motives when, over the last five years, "...traffic has increased substantially, and delays have reduced".
IFATCA says that the airlines are largely to blame, for scheduling too many flights at the same time, when there is inadequate airport capacity to handle them.
Source: Flight International
